Man guilty of third-degree murder in death of girlfriend's son

Anthony Lee Bush confesses to killing 11-year-old Donovan McKee

Defense attorney Lisa Middleman says Anthony Lee Bush thanked God when he heard that he had been convicted of third-degree murder, and not first, in the beating death of his girlfriend’s 11-year-old son.

"I don't think that there was any evidence that he intended to kill him. His twisted rationale for what he did was punishment,” Middleman told Channel 4 Action News' after the verdict was announced.

The jury deliberated for two hours before reaching its verdict on Tuesday afternoon.

Assistant District Attorney Lisa Pellegrini argued that Bush, 30, told police he woke up on the morning of the murder thinking that he was going to beat Donovan McKee inside the Rochelle Towers apartment complex in Knoxville last February.

During the trial, defense psychiatrist Dr. Barbara Ziv testified that Bush grew up being abused by his own mother and that he had intended his hours-long beating of the boy as discipline, just as he had been disciplined as a child.

Middleman said, "He's so ignorant and uneducated and damaged as a result of his life, that he didn't recognize what he was doing and he didn't recognize that he was in fact killing this little boy.”

The prosecution disputed defense claims that Bush had mental problems preventing him from forming intent to kill, which is a measure for judging first-degree murder.

Middleman said Bush wanted to plead guilty months ago to third-degree murder. Regarding the jury, Middleman said, "I didn't want them to be sympathetic as much as I wanted them just to understand, and I think they did understand."

During her closing statement, Middleman conceded to the jury that Bush is guilty of endangering the welfare of a child, but she argued that he is not guilty of homicide.

She claimed that, due to his own physical abuse and neglect at the hands of his own mother when he was a child, he was incapable of forming the specific intent to kill.

Middleman told jurors, "He's not a monster,” quoting the word Bush used to describe himself when he admitted the beating to police.

Middleman told jurors, "He's a damaged human being". She argued that Bush was "disciplining" McKee, treating him as his mother had treated him.

Middleman asked the jury, "How do you know how to treat a child?" She argued, "You can't judge an abnormal person the same way you judge anyone else.”

Middleman said the evidence shows Bush did not intend to kill McKee, but that he intended to punish him.

The defense attorney pointed to testimony by a forensic psychiatrist about the effects of physical child abuse on the development of Bush's brain and its long-term effects on his behavior. The attorney also told jurors that Bush was rejected and abused by others because he is an albino.

Middleman said, "He had nobody. He had nothing that allowed him to be nurtured.” She also told jurors, "He's a mess. He's mentally ill, something's wrong with him."

She said jurors must first judge if Bush had the mental ability to form an intention to kill, and then determine if that's what he did in McKee’s death. She urged them to find her client guilty of endangering the welfare of a child, but not guilty of all other charges.

Pellegrini told the jurors, "Let's get a few things straight: no one's disputing he was horribly abused as a child."

Pellegrini said that Bush told police, "I woke up that day and I knew I was going to beat Donovan.” The prosecutor held together the two broken pieces of a board that Bush used to beat the child and swung it in front of the jurors.

She told them, "This is what it looked like when he was swinging it.” She argued that "(Bush) beat that child in a rage and he didn't care," asking later, "Monstrous? Heck, yeah.”

Dismissing testimony that Bush has been depressed since the killing, Pellegrini told the jury, "What matters is his state of mind on Feb. 11, not after and not when he was a kid.”

She argued that Bush’s actions "were deliberate and premeditated,” and dismissed defense arguments as "hocus pocus."

Pellegrini told jurors there is "no evidence he had mental defects or disease and could not form the specific intent to kill. Monster is not my word, it's his word,” she said.

Pellegrini closed by saying Bush had “fully formed intent to kill. He had choices." She urged jurors to find him guilty of first-degree murder.

Judge Donna Jo McDaniel ordered a pre-sentencing report on Bush and set his sentencing date for April 23.

Copyright 2013 byWTAE.com All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.